Chapter 10 Alto "Muffins!"

Chapter 10

Alto

Muffins!

Crap crap crap crap crap crap cart CART!

Jumping up, I noticed that I must have jumped at least ten feet up in the air without any trying.

A grin grew to my face as I narrowly avoided hitting the cart and hit the ground on the other side.

"Hey watch it!" some voice, a mare from the higher pitch, shouted behind but I ignored it as I paced myself even more.

GOD I LOVE THIS BODY!...OH CRAP A CORNER!

Slowing down, I slid around the corner, making some dirt and dust rise from the ground. Turning round, I saw that I was on the main road from yesterday when me and guys had left the pizzeria.

Wicked! Now where the hell is.. oh it's there.

Gazing over in the end of the street, the two floors high post laid with "large letter having wings and tiara" -symbol marking its importance, just like yesterday.

Royal Equestrian Mail read the bright white text over the building.

Have to say it's.... OH YEAH; crap crap crap crap crap...

The distance between me and the building grew shorter and shorter with every second I ran. Sadly I couldn't run with my full speed, as I even now needed to constantly avoid pretty much everything that stood between me and my destination. Jesus, I didn't even have time to get a look at other ponies walking around, as I kept my gaze locked on the building, as if fearing it might disappear from sight.

To my dismay, this didn't happen and soon I was opening one of the two doors that marked the entrance to the place I would need to start call my work.

Honestly, I was pretty jealous of Tom, or Nucleus as he preferred nowadays, as he made almost the double what I made.

Oh well, at least we won't have any trouble with money. And besides, at least I don't need to work off time like he most likely will need to do AND HOLY SMOKE THIS LOBBY IS BIG!

Indeed, the lobby of the post office contained three parts along with a sitting place and mail drop-off point. In the centre of the room laid big round reception desk that had two pegasus mares taking care of the lobby activity. That is if there would have been any ponies here, but then I recalled that it was only about eight in the morning and...

Oh yeah; the work

Approaching the desk, I saw the mares talking to each other while all of them were reading some newspaper called Ponyville Times. I could overhear their discussion:

"Gosh they look so cool, especially the pegasus!"

Huh. They must be talking about some band or something similar to that.

"Tell me about it; finally we've got some new..."

The mare in front of me had stopped talking when she raised her head behind the paper. She looked at me for a minute before looking back at the paper before returning to me. I dropped the bag that had my daily meal of three muffins to the top before turning back to her.

"Hey! I'm here for the job." I said, but the mare just stared at me along with the other one, making me a bit nervous as why they acted out like that. But soon the mare in front of me got a hold of herself and smiled to me before turning over to face the other one.

"Could you inform Mr Typo that we've got the new worker here?" she vaguely said, making me shiver a bit.

"Hey I went last time! Why don't you go?"

"Cause I'm talking to our dear co-worker here and somepony has to show him the build..."

"Still; I'm not going!"

"Me neither!"

"Want to fight?"

"Sure! Come here you..."

I didn't get to hear the rest as I quickly grabbed my muffins and slip past them without notice. Thankfully the signs pointed me the way to the head ponchos office that just happened to be on the second floor along with the cafe lounge that seemed to serve food along with drinks.

Good to know here I can get my daily coffee.

But my eyes caught the clock that hang just above the entrance to the lounge.

07:56

Breath of relief escaped my mouth before I resumed my walking but more I decided to relax and go calmly than when I had left the house.

But hot damn I feel good. Have to ask from Tom more about pegasus pon...

My mind monologue was interrupted when I arrived at the end of the signs and to that blandly stated:

Typo Fixer

Post Master

Odd name. But remember what Mom told you Mike.

Politely, I knocked to the door and almost immediately male voice shouted to come in.

Now Mike; we know you hate what the job description said, but what else can we do? Just keep your nose clean so we can get the money.

After entering, I found myself in some kind of office that didn't exactly look like one; thought there were couple cabins on the sides along with many diplomas on the wall, as majority of the rooms space was taken by a large wooden desk that had neat pile of papers, a framed picture and a typewriter. But the eye catching thing was the large chair that stretched upwards and almost reaching the ceiling. Behind the chair and desk laid large window that opened up a perfect view to the street below.

And of course we had my new boss sitting on this comically large chair. He was pegasus, like every pony I had seen in this building this far, and quite adequate looking as he was wearing tuxedo outfit that covered his light yellow coat while his chestnut mane fell down back naturally.

"Ah, you must be mister Stratus." Mr Typo said to me while grabbing the first batch of papers from the pile. I walked to the table and dropped off the bag before talking to him:

"Yep, but I would like to be called Alto." I said, but the tuxedo guy didn't care as he quickly went through the papers, practically only giving a glimpse before turning a page.

Heh, almost like when Alex used to read; only a second and flip the page.

"I understood that you're unaware of what kind of work we've got for you. Am I right?" Mr Typo said while placing the papers at the bottom of the pile and giving an odd look at the bag, like he had remembered something important.

Rubbing the back of my head, I finally was able to mutter out:

"Well, the paper told something about 'sorting' but that's pretty much it." I told to him, making him snap out of staring at the muffins.

"Indeed... But what do you think you're supposed to do?"

Ah screw it! Get your nose dirty.

"...cleaning..."

He didn't even blink when a smile grew to his face. To my surprise, he stood up from behind the desk and walked past me towards the door. Then I noticed that he had letter A in Blackletter style as his rump symbol.

Just like Tom told; symbol, Cutie Mark if I recall right, represents the person/pony. Wonder what mine will be like when it decides to show up?

"Come with me mister Stratus." Mr Typo said as he opened the door and headed down the corridor. Quickly I caught up to him, as for one of them office guys he seemed to be in pretty good condition. Many pegasus ponies greeted him when we walked past the lounge from earlier. Soon we arrived at downstairs to the lobby area.

Grin grew to my face as I saw the mares from before; now calmed down, but obvious bruises were visible along with their manes being totally messed up. Mr Typo must not have cared as he simply moved on and turned to go through a door which blandly said PERSONNEL ONLY.

From the looks of it the place seemed to be like some sort of docking bay as many freights and boxes were laying around, but to my relief I wouldn't need to be 'sorting' these things out as we continued on through narrow passage to even further into the deeps of the backroom.

Note: bring a piece of chalk along next time to mark the way out.

After minute or so of walking and greeting unknown ponies, Mr Typo stopped and moved to the side to give me the glimpse of the door.

"Mr Stratus, do you know how the mail system works?" he asked from me and I shook my head, as this was one of those things that even Tom couldn't answer, claiming that "it hasn't been ever mentioned in the show".

And to be honest, I didn't really care either.

"As you know, thousands of letters are sent every day in all over Equestria; from Canterlot to Manehattan and from Ponyville to Trottingham. Of course there has been recently talk about magical mind links, but letters are still the only reliable way to contact others in farther places. Are you still with me?"

I nodded and Mr Typo then opened the door in front of me.

Gasp erupted from my mouth.

H O L Y  S H I T

"About some fifty years ago, some unicorn pony in Canterlot came up with a way to effectively transport a mass of light objects between certain fixed points. After that, all the offices of Royal Equestrian Mail are required to have one and it has led to this."

The room I looked into didn't even look like a room. Besides the small table in the centre, there was.... well letters. These huge piles filled the room from floor to ceiling, from corner to corner.

"And if you think this is bad, you wouldn't believe what it's like in the headquarters back at Canterlot. And the worst thing is we cannot even use unicorn magic to sort these out, because the teleporting makes them basically magic proof for some unknown reason.

Gulping down my throat, I looked back to him.

"Y-you mean I have to 'sort' all this?" I asked hesitantly asked and Mr Typo nodded.

"Simply putting, yes. Your job is to sort these letters out to the mail saddles which are then given to the specific mail pony, according to what code it has on it."

He's gotta be kidding me.....right?

Mr Typo must have noticed my amazement, as he chuckled a bit before turning to face the room.

"If you're fearing that you need to do this alone, then don't worry." he said while entering the room and I hesitantly followed just behind. Mr Typo cleared his throat a bit before turning over to the largest pile of letters

"Ditzy, I know you're here. Come out and meet your new partner."

A pile started to shiver a bit before the whole pile fell down like an house of cards. Luckily a nearby desk protected me and him, as we ducked underneath it until the wave had passed.

Even from under the desk I saw that the letters had pretty much covered the centre area, making the floor practically invisible. But as I raised my head from the behind, still unsure if it was safe to go, I saw that Mr Typo was ahead of me and had stood up next to me while pointing his hoof towards

"Mr Stratus, meet your partner and manager Ditzy Doo."

Looking at the direction of his hoof, my mouth dropped open a little before wide grin grew to my face.

"Whoops, my bad." said a voice from somewhere under the small pile of letters and soon a pair of grey hooves appeared from underneath it while two wings popped out on, making more letters fly to sides from the wind they generated. After the dust had settled, I saw a grey pegasus mare rubbing the back of her head while her face bore an apologetic look.

She doesn't look that ba.. JESUS WHAT'S WRONG WITH HER EYES!

As she turned to turned to look at Mr Typo, her eyes opened up while her previous expression faded away. Little gasp escaped from my mouth as this happened but luckily neither her nor Mr Typo noticed this.

"Heh, was looking for those B-mark letters and..." the mare started out before noticing me looking at her from behind the table.

"No B-mark letters were marked to arrive in yesterday’s transport." Mr Typo said while looking at the grey pegasus, who just kept staring at me with her weird eyes for a while but suddenly her face light up and she started to jump in excitement.

"NEW WORKER! NEW WORKER! NEW..."

Mr Typo faintly smiled while laying his hoof over the pegasus, who calmed down immediately but from the looks she was still gleaming.

"Yes Ditzy. Now I need you to show him how things are done here in Sorting Department and perhaps give a tour of the building after finishing work. Can you do that?" he asked from her, who turned serious for a minute and saluted to him. Mr Typo then turned to face me.

"Ditzy here will guide you in these first days. Don't hesitate to ask questions from her." he said to me before heading out of the door. Soon the door closed behind him and I was left alone in the room with the grey mare.

Before I got to say anything however, she walked next to the table and raised her right hoof towards me.

"Hi, I'm Ditzy Doo and I work here in Sorting Department." she excavated while giving me a heart-warming smile, but only one of her eyes was fixed onto me as the other was looking at opposite direction.

"Oh, um, I'm Alto Stratus." I faintly said to her while grabbing the hoof for a shake before finally standing up.

"Great name, but we have to get back to work." Ditzy said while starting to look through the letters and soon she had grabbed three of them with her mouth.

"Okay ifsh thivsh shimpfel really." she started out before dropping the letters to the table. From the looks they were all in different envelopes, so I guessed that it was some sort of color code that helped out.

"There are four different kinds of letters that we get; A, B, C and D letters. They..."

"Are marked by the colour of envelope." I said, making her drop the speech. But she instead giggled a bit before grabbing one of letters and giving it to me.

"Nah it isn't that simple but I really hope that it would be. Take a look at the mark next to the stamp."

Then to my dismay I noticed she was telling the truth. Right next to the stamp was marked dark letter C that seemed to have been written in haste. Suddenly something heavy seemed to drop, making me dazzle a bit before turning to see Ditzy along with three saddle packs lying on the ground. Quickly I ran to her and helped her to get up.

"Thanks, the packs are quite heavy when they aren't strapped onto you." she said in relief while pointing towards them. Then I noticed that each one of them had different letter on the sides.

"Anyway, we need to fill these packs with the letters that have the same mark." she told me while starting to lay out the bags

Oh boy this will be long shift

* * * * *

"By the way Ditzy, when will we have a break? My back is beaten out!" I exhilarated while dramatically falling to my back. Ditzy giggled again like so many times after we had started working about three hours ago.

To Ditzy's honour, she was really great personality when I got over the fact her eyes were like they were. She was really care free when it came to working but she was still hard working, always going through every letter she found. Many times I had to point out that she was checking the already checked pile, but she insisted on double checking and that there were standards they needed to meet for being the Royal Mail.

"Well usually I work until the shift ends so you've got about hour of sorting to do, so get back to work." she pointed out before diving back inside the pile of letters. Smiling, I also jumped from top of the pile back to the insides in search for the specific letters.

Dude, who knew sorting could be this cool?

The past three hours had went actually pretty fast considering that we mostly just went through the many piles in hunt of the C and D letters that go outside of the town. A, B and C letters are city bound and they're pretty much eight out of ten letters I came across, excluding the B letters.

But most of the fun came from Ditzy, as she showed how the thing works. Basically you dive into the biggest pile and search the bottom for the letters and after that pile was fully searched, you would grab the A pack and stuff as much letters as possible in it and drop it inside the hole next to the door. Ditzy said that it dropped to room where the bags were to be issued to the post carriers’ tomorrow morning.

But this just too much..Uhh D letter!

"I see that you're doing well." echoed the familiar voice of Mr Typo. Quickly I swam towards the edge and soon my head popped out from the side to face my smiling boss.

"Yes, this job is awesome!" I exclaimed before remembering that I was talking to my boss, but he just laughed before turning towards Ditzy who had just appeared from her pile, carrying couple of letters in her mouth.

"Ditzy, I've just been informed that we will be not getting any letters for tomorrow due to problems in the central office." he said and Ditzy just groaned before spitting out the letters from her mouth.

"Yes I know but we just have to cope with that. Your work is basically done for now, as you can sort out the remaining letters tomorrow." Mr Typo said before heading out, but he suddenly stopped at the doorframe.

"Oh and Mr Stratus, I believe this is yours." he said while taking out from his jacket the bag of muffins I immediately recognized. I nervously chuckled a bit before taking it from him, who then proceeded to leave. Behind me, I could hear Ditzy groan again.

"Just great, but what can we do? Oh well, at least I get to eat sooner." she said after dropping the last saddle pack to the hole and turning to walk past the door, but she stopped after she noticed the bag I was carrying. Her eyes shot open, and to my shock both of her eyes were fixed onto the bag.

"Umm, is something wron.."

"MUFFINS! MUFFINS! I LOVE MUFFINS!"

Her outburst made me fall to my back and thanks to our efficiency, I had an unpleasant meet-up with the floor. But soon Ditzy calmed down and rushed to help me.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Here let me help you." she nervously said but I just stood up and shot her with a smile, making her calm a bit.

"It's okay. You can make it up to me by eating with me." I told her, but she just dropped her face before looking down at the ground while rubbing her hooves on the ground.

"Well... I don't have a meal with me." she finally spurted out while giving a little look at the bag I had accidentally dropped next to me.

"Well I've got three muffins so I guess I could spare one." I said before grabbing my bag and opening it to see to my dismay that one of them had been smashed to bits. But still, I took one of two remaining muffins and threw it to eagerly waiting Ditzy, who had some drool already dropping from her mouth. She caught the muffin in middle-air and proceeded to swallow it with one go.

"Mmh, chocolate, my second favourite!"

Chuckling, I took a bite out of the last muffin before starting to head out of the door.

"Wait."

Turning back, I saw Ditzy looking at me.

"Don't you remember what Mr Typo said? You know, show around the building." she said as she walked next to me, but I shook my head to her.

"It's okay; I saw most of upstairs when looking for the boss and he in regards showed off most of the areas here in downstairs." I said before taking bite from my sweet muffin, but it stopped middle on its tracks as I caught a glimpse of Ditzy. Her face bore an expression of visible sorrow from hearing this.

I can be quite an ass sometimes, can't I?

"But if you could show me more of Ponyville..." I started out before being interrupted by her laughter.

"I would be more than happy to do that," she said before smiling to me, making me relieved that she wasn't sad anymore, and soon we were walking towards the lobby, as it seemed like there wasn't no back door entrance. But Ditzy explained that the roof also acted out as the landing area for the post carriers, so you could count that one also.

Yeah except that I don't know how to fly...

"By the way Ditzy, may I ask a couple of questions from you?" I said while we stopped to wait at the cargo area, as there was really big shipment arriving and it was cut off due to safety reasons. Ditzy rubbed the back of her head before answering.

"Well I guess its okay. What you want to know?" she answered, but I could hear a little bit of hesitance in her otherwise joyful voice.

Now Mike, don't ask the obvious question first.

"Well, how did you get into this job?" I asked while watching a really big cart, dragged by four pegasus ponies, come from the side and soon the big brutes of the docking bay started to haul the many boxes to the sides.

"It was my fillyhood dream to become a mailmare, as I imagined that I would soar the skies in hurry to deliver important letters from the Princess to the various parts of Equestria. I've also always wanted to visit cities like Trottingham and Manehattan when I first saw them in the various photos and pictures, so I figured this would be the dream job for me."

"But then why you're working in the Sorting Department?"

Ditzy turned to face me with her eyes trying to lock onto me and then the realization struck me.

"Cause of my eyes. I flunked at the health examination when I applied; they said that my depth view was just too bad." she silently said before turning to watch the boxes being hauled to check-up.

"I'm sorry.... But honestly, I think you're the best when it comes to hunting letters." I said, trying to cheer her up and she giggled before turning back to me.

"It's okay, as I was hired to fill in the open spot at Sorting Department and to be honest, I'm happy with my current job. And besides, sometimes I get to act as replacement if somepony gets suddenly sick."

*TWUMP*

Both of us turned to see that many boxes had fell from the cart and from the looks we would be stuck for even longer.

"Okay then what about your mark?" I continued on and Ditzy just burst out in laughter, as if it was some kind of joke. After she had settled down, she wiped her eyes before turning to me.

"Honestly I don't even remember when I got it. And I also don't what it means so don't ask. But can I ask something from you?" she said catching me off guard for the third time since I met her.

Well Tom said to avoid answering, but the again he isn't here, so...

"Shoot it."

"Why don't you have a Cutie Mark? You must be like over fifteen:" she said while pointing at my rump, which indeed was still clear from the symbol I had seen on everypony.

Remember what Tom told.

"Well, me and my pals just don't have ours. Guess we haven't just found what we truly are yet. And to be clear, I'm seventeen along with my friends." I told her while she kept her look at my rump before giggling and looking back to me.

"That's the oth..."

She was interrupted however as the docking bay was now again free to walk, so we continued on to the lobby, but I just wondered what else Ditzy had wanted to ask from me. The lobby seemed to be quite empty, as there were only the reception ponies along with a violet pony with a purple...

Isn't that Twilight?

"Here you go miss, the book you had ordered." said one of the reception ponies to Twilight, while she went through her saddle pack and soon levitated pouch to the table. From that, she took out ten small round objects that I recognized to be bits, and gave them to the receptionist before turning around just to get a glimpse of me.

"Oh hi Alto." she shouted while walking to me and Ditzy gave an odd look at me.

"You know her?" she asked from me and I just shrugged to her.

"Long story short; she saved me and the guys." I blandly stated and she made long 'oooh' sound just as Twilight got to us.

"How's your first day been?" she asked from me, while Ditzy walked off towards the desk.

"Perhaps one of the best, taking note that this is the first day in regular work." I answered to her. "Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I had ordered a book from Canterlot and I came to pick it up." she said just as Ditzy arrived back carrying a small bag in her mouth and she gave it to me.

"Here you go; your today's payment. Remember to get the payment before leaving unless you take them between certain days, like I do." she told as I opened it to see many glimmering bits inside.

"Sweet! Closer to paying the rent and getting the beds." I exclaimed, making Ditzy giggle and Twilight look at me oddly.

"Anyway, what are you going to do Alto?" Twilight asked from me while I noticed a clock was hanging from the wall just above the entrance.

12:48

Oh crap is it that much already!

Sighting, I looked at Ditzy.

"Sorry, might want to skip the showing around and just point out where the school is." I said to her and she just gave an odd look at me before Twilight step in.

"You're going to meet-up with Nucleus?" she asked and I nodded, but the Ditzy just giggled a bit.

"What a luck! I had planned to ask if it was possible to go first to the school and pick up Dinky."

Dinky?

"Umm... Who's Dinky?" I hesitantly asked from her, who just shunned hoof at me.

"Well my daughter..."

WHAT? SHE'S A MOTHER!

"Oh...umm..." I started out before Ditzy put a hoof over my mouth to silence me.

"I get that a lot, so please don't do that."

I gently moved a hoof away before returning a big smile to her and I think she got the idea. Then both of us heard a faint laugh coming from Twilight.

"Come on; let's go if we want to be there when both Dinky and Nucleus get out." she told to us before starting to head towards the entrance. Ditzy ran after her while was left there little dumbfounded on three realizations.

1. My work is awesome!

2. I just made a new friend

3. This friend is a mother, meaning there's a fiancée somewhere.

"Alto! Aren't you coming?" shouted Ditzy from the entrance before opening it. I just grabbed my little bag of bits before heading to meet with the girls outside.

In the end, not a bad start of day. Wonder how well it went at the school?

A/U: And yes, the name's Ditzy "Derpy" Doo